Carnival Day

Carnival Day (1936)

** (out of 4)

This early Warner short is a very important one, although the end results are rather one-sided. The movie takes place at a carnival as a balloon salesman (Henry Armetta) is walking around, meeting various people. He eventually has to stop a couple bad guys who are trying to fix a race. The plot here is actually a lot less than that but that's not the reason to check this film out. The real reason to watch this thing is because of the Technicolor, which was one of the earliest uses of it and this here was pretty much a test for the studio to see how everything would work. The following year they'd deliver THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and it's rather amazing to see how close both films are in terms of their color. I might even go a bit further and say this here looks a lot better than some of the Technicolor we'd see in the 40s and 50s. There's not a single frame here that won't have your eyes tossing around trying to take everything in. The different color balloons are one thing but check out the clothes being worn and even the dirt that everyone is walking on. An impressive shot, visually, but there's no denying the weak story leaves you wanting a bit more.